Weeks after her life was saved, Kendra Brouwer sees each day as an opportunity

“I’m not sure how you’re supposed to be feeling three weeks after something like this, but I’d say I feel pretty darn good.”

In Kendra Brouwer’s case, “something like this” is nothing less than coming within a breath and a heartbeat of losing her life.

The Sioux Falls wife, mother of two and business owner put her kids to bed the evening of Feb. 2 and went to sleep as usual.

The next thing she remembers, she was in a cardiac recovery room at Sanford USD Medical Center.

In between were four days, multiple miracles and hundreds, if not thousands, of people pulling for her and her family.

“My husband woke up to me gasping and taking a last breath as he describes it,” Brouwer said.
Despite never performing CPR, Graeme Brouwer began performing chest compressions. He managed to call for help, unlock the front door and never even disturb their sleeping 5- and 8-year-olds.

“He did what he had to do and was brave and bold and strong and just took care of things,” Brouwer said.

So many things had to go right.

“I’m so grateful for this scenario,” she continued. “That I was actually in bed with him and not with my kids on the couch like I am lots of other times, and that he’s a light-enough sleeper … he heard it and caught it and did everything he could to bring me back.”

So did the team at Sanford USD Medical Center, who cooled her body and intubated her, “so my brain and organs did not swell in response to the trauma,” Brouwer continued.

As she stabilized, they began to rewarm her body. After three days in intensive care, she was moved to a cardiac rehab room, “and that’s what I remember,” she said. “That’s when my memories start coming back.”

She had a procedure to implant a cardiac defibrillator, which she called “a backup plan” in case her heart ever has a similar complication.

“It’s like the shock paddles, but it’s already in place in case I need it,” she said. “I’m really grateful for the care I received. I had amazing care when I was at Sanford. My nurses were awesome. … I basically feel like we’re besties now, but they took really great care of me, and I attribute a lot of my recovery to that care but also to just so many people taking care of my family and doing all these things.”

As she began to fully wake up, the enormity of the response to her situation started to take root.

Within days, an entire community had risen up around the Brouwer family. Brouwer, the owner of Kosha Yoga School, has played a big role in growing the local yoga community, including teaching many of the yoga instructors who work in town.

They instantly rallied, with classes to benefit her, a fundraising page, a raffle and meal chain for the family. Other friends organized giveback efforts, took over her yoga classes and ran her teacher trainings.

“I can’t even begin to describe how amazing it is to wake up from this knowing you nearly lost your life and you come to and there’s all this happening in your support,” she said. “People took care of me, they took care of my family, they took care of my obligations.”

The word “grateful” doesn’t seem big enough “to express how profound that is on my heart,” she continued. “If there’s anything that can help your heart heal, it’s knowing you have the support of so many people and such an amazing community as we have here. I knew it was there, and you hate for it to have to be for you, but it’s just incredible. There are no words.”

People have asked her, the survivor of a near-death experience: “Did you see the light? Did you have any come-to-Jesus kind of moments?” she said.

Not while she was unconscious.

But after? When she would look at her phone and see over and over the outpouring of support? That was an out-of-body experience, she said.

“It literally was like every time I looked at my phone all over again, people are doing this for me. Holy cow! Wow! Just over and over and over.”

The messages kept coming, even though the senders sometimes apologized saying she must have been getting inundated.

Never hesitate to reach out if you’re in that situation with anyone, she emphasized.

“That’s part of the healing process, and that’s what I want to be able to do for people too. If you’re on my mind, if you’re on my heart, I want to say something. I don’t want to sit around and think about saying something. Don’t wait. Send the message. Give the hug. Especially what the last year and a half has been like with COVID, I think it’s just so important to make the connection that is on your heart to make.”

In her case, that meant going to straight to Ignite Infrared Fitness Studio after she was discharged from the hospital, where yoga classes were being held in her honor.

“I was like, I need to see those people,” she said. “I felt like it was important to see people, to thank people in person for what they were doing for me.”

It was a surprise visit, she continued, “but it was the energy that I needed to be around to keep that positive healing process going. It was amazing. It was incredible.”

She’s continuing to heal. From her home, she’s able to run her Arbonne business, which her team supported in her absence. Friends are helping with her massage and yoga clients while she recovers. The hope is the family will be able to take a vacation at some point, especially to thank her kids who “have been troopers through all this,” she said. “They’re heroes in this too.”

The fundraising has been so generous – she estimates at least $40,000 raised – that she doesn’t feel she has to rush back to work.

Her cardiac episode was just the latest in a series of health challenges over the past year. Diagnosed with breast cancer, she went through treatment and multiple surgeries while continuing to run her businesses.

The events have left her with an even stronger faith.

It’s easy to ask “why,” she acknowledged. She had no genetic markers, ate “really well,” certainly exercised enough, did “all the things.” But that’s dwelling on the past. And Brouwer describes herself as a “pretty present-forward kind of person.”

Photo by Bailey Keller

“I look at it as an opportunity to open my eyes every morning with a fresh start and an opportunity to grow more in my faith,” she said.

“These experiences have definitely drawn me closer than I thought I ever could be with the Lord, with my church, with just the importance of having something to grasp, something to cling to when you don’t know what’s going on, when you know you don’t have control of the situation.”

The woman who went to bed thinking it was like any other night and woke up four days later now is grateful every morning.

“God has a plan,” she said. “God has a plan for me, and we don’t always get to know what that is until it’s upon us. And what I know and what I trust is he’s not done with me yet. There’s more work. There’s more healing. There’s more giving for me to do in this community. In this world.”

See the complete interview with Kendra Brouwer below.